The Last Day
by Lea Ootori
Summary: *Slight AU* SAO lasted for a total of five years instead of two, and Kayaba reveals the game shuts down on the fifth anniversary- The characters put together a bucket list, and drama ensues. Will they rest in peace, or can they make it out alive?


**Hey guys, this is my second Sword Art Online fanfic/oneshot. I'm not expecting a response for this one really, but I did it as a birthday present for my friend.**

 **So, this is dedicated to my friend Ian. Sorry for the lateness. I really tried. And the fact that I just typed up this note but my phone freaking froze and now I have to retype the note and redo the line breaks and stuffs really pisses me off...**

* * *

The redhead was drifting in a world of clouds and happiness and whatnot when she was awoken from her dreamland by a cold finger poking at her cheek. She opened her orange eyes with a jump.

"Hey, watcha smilin' about?" Kirito asked, sitting up in bed. Asuna pulled the covers up and bit and smiled.

She sighed. "I… was just… having a dream… about my old life. It was weird." Her bleary voice cleared up, and she looked through the soft yellow light at Kirito's face. "In the dream I had, everything in Aincrad...everything that happened with me and you was just that- a dream. And I was so scared. But it wasn't. Thank god." Asuna wasn't aware she was making close to no sense, but Kirito understood what she meant anyway. The seventeen year old closed her eyes, not sure if she wanted to go back to sleep or wake up and see Kirito's face.

"Now that sounds weird." Kirito said like an immature kid, waking Asuna up again before she got to sleep. "Don't you want to go back?"

Asuna all but bolted out of her sleep, turning over, suddenly awake. "Of course I do!" She said with a chuckle. "I do, it's just...I don't want my life here to disappear is all. The last few years have been very special to me. I realize that now.

Kirito stared at Asuna thoughtfully.

Asuna got up with a sigh, hugging the blanket to her nude figure. "Listnen...Kirito, I was thinking, maybe we could leave the front lines for a while."

Kirito looked startled. "What?" He asked.

Asuna looked down, hugging the covers to her. "I'm scared. I feel like if we return to the battlefield now, something bad's gonna happen again. Or maybe I'm just tired of it all." Asuna was ashamed, but then Kirito spoke up, smiling.

"I kinda know what you mean. I guess...I am too." He looked out the window, fake cricket sounds soaking up the silence. "In the southwest of floor twenty-two, there's this tiny little village by a lake, and a full forest." He took a deep breath. He looked like he was hesitating. "We could get a house together." He said quietly, looking out the window. "And then…"

Asuna was a bit nervous, but she did her best to remain poker-faced. "And then what?" She prodded.

Kirito looked off into a corner, visibly sweating. "Then," he finally said, "We get married." The determination was clear on his face, like it was a fight he was determined to win.

Asuna might have been expecting something along the lines of that, but that didn't ease her surprise. She gasped, her eyes watering. Her usually clear eyesight became blurry, and she fought to say something that was better than "Yes." But the lump in her throat wouldn't let her speak, and she managed an "Okay," instead. But even then, she couldn't stop the tears from coming on.

Could there be anything more beautiful than being proposed to? No, there wasn't anything more beautiful than that- Asuna had no qualms about that. It's most girls' dream to be proposed to by Mr. Perfect- or at least Mr. Okay, as Asuna's friend Liz used to say, but to Asuna, who'd never dreamed of being proposed to, Kirito proposing to her, so suddenly, in such a simple, beautiful way, that was just so _Kirito_ it made her feel awfully teary.

She shouted would have shouted 'Yes!' at him. She wanted nod her head like she was crazy. Because she wanted him to know- she wanted to marry him more than he wanted to marry her- she wanted him more, she bet. She wanted someone to love, she wanted to love _Kirito_ so badly, that it was almost not fair. It wasn't fair at all, Asuna thought with a laugh. She couldn't stop the tears from coming, and she couldn't say or express what she wanted to right now- she was far too emotional at the moment. She'd have to wait for later, if he didn't understand from her speechlessness.

She was all but obsessed with him. Not in a creepy, yandere way, like people thought whenever people used the word 'obsessed'. It was more of addicted. It was weird, how 'addicted' she was to him, like a drug.

Most might call her needy, or a whore, or desperate, but Asuna knew her feelings went beyond physical attraction.

She'd never been loved like Kirito loved her before. She wasn't used to be being a priority. She was after other things for her parents. She didn't have any siblings. She was always after work, after business parties, after her parent's colleagues.

She wasn't used to being first.

And now she was addicted to it.

Asuna and Kirito spent their first few days engaged like a happy, giggling couple. Asuna wanted so badly to get married, but Kirito wanted to wait until the fifth anniversary of the game was over- he didn't want to put a damper on their wedding - he wanted her to remember it forever and ever - even if it was just virtual.

"When we get out, we'll have another wedding." Kirito told her. "We'll do it all again, you can get whatever you want." He laughed.

It reminded Asuna of that one thing she'd told him once. _When we get out of this world, I will find you again. I will find you, and fall in love with you all over again._

Asuna wanted to ask how he was sure they'd get out- because it was a valid question, but she refused to say it. Almost as if saying it would reduce their chances of getting out.

In a way it would. Her saying it would mean she'd given up. And if the second best player of the 10,000 players that started the game gave up, what hope did they have?

So Asuna just smiled, and Kirito kissed her cheek, and she told him how cute he could be, because she just wanted to make him blush. And that made him even cuter. Giggling, she pulled away, and grabbed Kirito's hand, enjoying their time together more than anything in the past, gruelling, five years.

But the happiness was short-lived.

Because life isn't a fairy tale. Especially not the lives of the people stuck in Sword Art Online. No siree.

It was the day before the fifth anniversary of the game- The eve, if you'd like to call it that. There was no celebration like there was for most anniversaries.

Just a lot of praying and weeping.

The former Asuna would have ignored it. She was losing days, she couldn't waste her time in this world! She was losing the little bits of her life that could have been so precious to her, but she'd never get to experience. She was missing so much! School, her friends, maybe she was even missing her first kiss or a certain award or an awesome experience that this game had stolen from her. What a thief. She'd have thought the criers and the prayers wimps, and gone on, fighting as hard as she could, trying to get back to her life, her _real_ life. The one that never made her happy when she lived it, but now, without it, she revered it much more than earlier. Much more. She wished she had it back more than anything.

But since Kirito came along, her outlook had changed, and she'd realized she was still living in this world, even if not in the life that her birth had set her in. She was still _living,_ and that's all that mattered. Being alive. Especially being alive with someone like Kirito. Somehow, just being with him was rewarding.

She found herself forgetting her earlier cravings for her old life. She sank into routine, and with her beloved fiance, she seemed to constantly forget that the life she was living was all in her head. Every twinkle in Kirito's eye, every slight, teasing brush of his hand, every crooked smile and blush, they were all 0's and 1's, made by a beautiful craftsman.

But she realized at once point that it didn't matter. She didn't fall in love Kirito because he was handsome or suave or his eyes were sparkly- in her opinion, that was shallow. She loved his quirks, the way he rubbed his neck when he was embarrassed, his strong values, his sweet romanticness, and his caring, sometimes rugged care for her. It all somehow excited her, deep down, that someone liked her enough to actually do anything special for her- for a girl who'd never celebrated a birthday, for a girl who'd never been told that someone loved her. It was always, _"Of course you're important to me, Asuna. Don't waste your time worrying about petty things like that."_ or _"Why wouldn't I?"_ Or something similar. Nobody had ever _actually_ told her that they loved her. Kirito was the first.

And so that day, the eve of the fifth anniversary of the game, Asuna and Kirito walked along the street, not worrying about fighting for once. They were actually at peace. Which was rare in the game. But Kirito made Asuna feel peaceful- she was so, very sure he was a keeper. She fought to keep the smile off her face when Kirito smiled at her, but then finally succumbed to her giddiness. She wondered for a second, _What would mom say if she saw me now? Would she think I was being strong and doing the right thing or would she disapprove?_ She shook the thought out of her head. For the first time in her life, Asuna had made her own choices, and she was mighty proud of it. She wouldn't let anything stroke her down now. Not now.

So she walked along the street, expecting the exact same scene as the previous four years- sad, lonely people, moping, praying, and the occasional weeper or teenager gone mad. She walked past some obsessed ranting about how their favorite artist had probably released two albums by now and she'd missed them both, and she began to bawl hysterically. Asuna walked away from her subconsciously. That was a teenager gone mad. As she and Kirito carefully wound their way through the streets, both of them began to pick up on something like bloodhounds can pick up on a scent. While most everything was the same, there was something weird about today.

This morning was somehow completely different.

Kirito's eyes narrowed, and he threw a glance around then, raising a hand to his shoulder cautiously, ready to grab a sword if needed, even if they were in a safe zone.

Asuna watched him carefully, and reached for the hilt of her own sword in a similar fashion.

Asuna wasn't sure, but somehow, this morning smelled like death.

She had never smelled something dead, but that wasn't what she meant either. There was something raw, something primal about this morning that sent off warning bells on her head, but she couldn't put her finger on it. But the word death kept springing up imnher head, as if she was playing a horror game.

Kirito finally let his hand drop, and Asuna followed his lead- she felt like he was always right at times like these. But she didn't let her guard drop with her hand. No, that was still but and strong as ever.

But they were so busy surveying their surroundings that they didn't notice the apparent absence of players until Asuna and Kirito found themselves in the same plaza they'd been in the very, very first day of the game. The sky was a similar blood red shade, and everything was almost the same as the dreadful day, making Asuna shudder from the intense flashback and deja vu.

As she spotted Kirito's black head bobbing in the crowd, looking for her, and she worked her way towards him, and when he saw her, he did the same. They met in the middle of their beelines, and Asuna wanted to smile at him, but that would mean she believed everything would be okay. And sadly, she didn't. If the first day of the game was all but being reenacted, then how was that okay, at any level? But as she and Kirito both looked around she couldn't help but think, _There's a lot less people here now._ Which was true. That day, it'd been packed. She could remember every second of that life changing day vividly, as if she was watching it over again. She grasped Kirito's hand, and he gave her hand a little squeeze. They both would have giggled, if not for the worry-inducing situation they were currently in.

And who appeared? Why, none other than the Game Master.

~The Last Day~

Dressed in the same cloak with the same echoing voice and a presence like that of a phantom, Kirito was chilled to the bone, but refused to show it. His analytical mind was racing with reasons why _him_ of all people would show up at a time like this.

Was he here to ridicule them? To make fun of their incompetence? Kirito's stomach twisted with anger.

"Good morning, remaining gamers." The weird voice boomed. It was a mocking voice. It was taunting. "As most of you know, tomorrow is the fifth anniversary of the game." The voice paused, and someone in the crowd wondered out loud if the mysterious figure (who was 99.999% Akihiko Kayaba) knew what was happening in the real world.

Suddenly everything erupted. People started screaming at him, yelling, crying, bawling, some started throwing things at him that deflected off the force field surrounding him. If he'd had a face, he might have looked completely casual, standing there, not even caring. He waited. Kirito's empty hand became a fist. All he could think was, _Why?_

Before he could contemplate the question like he'd done many times in the past few years, the voice said, "Well if that's how you want to spend your last day..."

There was a shocked silence.

Then someone shouted, "What?"

The Game Master laughed. "It's your last day in Sword Art Online, dear Gamer."

Kirito heard someone gasp. He heard laughter. Saw smiles. Giggles. Happy sobs.

 _No,_ Kirito thought. _It's not that easy._

"You're not getting out to the real world. You're gonna die." The voice said afterwards. Again, it was so casual, as if he'd simply walked over to a neighbor's house to ask for sugar. As if this was all a game to him.

Shocked silence. The Game Master seemed to enjoy playing with the minds of the Sword Art Online gamers. _How cruel._ Kirito thought. _That bastard._ It didn't bother him in the least that there was a good chance Akihiko Kayaba knew what he'd just thought. In fact, Kirito hoped Akihiko knew.

But then the fact sunk in. This wasn't a game. No joke. Akihiko Kayaba was gonna kill them all.

The voice chuckled. "You seem to not believe it. You all die on the fifth anniversary. That's how the game was made- that's how it'll go."

The way he said it, he made it sound so simple. As if it was a recipe for a dish, or the boring instruction manual to build some type of regular furniture.

Nobody could believe their ears. "Enjoy your last day, players."

~The Last Day~

Kirito had no clue what had just happened. Asuna was squeezing the heck out of his hand, but his face was aghast and his body was numb- he had no clue what was happening.

"K-Kirito?" Asuna turned to him, obviously even more bothered than he was.

But Kirito was just staring at his beautiful Asuna's face, wondering what she'd done to deserve this. He hadn't been very nice to his sister, and he'd just but shut out his poor mother- maybe he deserved it- especially after he killed those two players. He was a horrible person, when it came down to it.

But Asuna?

She hadn't done one bad thing.

Asuna was thinking more along the lines of what she'd been doing all this time, stuck in the game.

She'd spent the last five years fighting to her very last breath, wanting to get out above all else. When she finally realized that getting out wasn't the only way to live her life again, it had been too late.

She'd finally found out how to remain sane, how to be _happy,_ in the virtual world, and now she was gonna die. Die. What an ugly word. She rubbed her left eye with the heel of her hand, still not wanting to let go of Kirito's hand. They were all going to die.

She tried to let the fact sink in.

Die.

Die.

Die.

D-i-e.

Die.

~The Last Day~

Klein, Liz, Silica, Agil, Kirito, and Asuna sat at the back of Agil's shop. They'd wordlessly been sitting there for what felt like hours. How torturous. How positively horrible. How dire. Many words could be used to describe the tense, uncomfortable, and maddening situation, but mostly, everyone was thinking. Finally Liz spoke up.

In her quaking voice, she took a deep breath and finally managed to say a more coherent sentence than anyone else had managed to put together since the news had been made public.

"You know," She said, "I lived more in the game than I ever did in real life. I mastered an art, I fell in love, and I had my heart broken. I had friends. Real, good friends, that didn't make fun of me for gaming. It wasn't all perfect, yeah, but that's part of living, right? I actually had fun, too." Her hair cast shadows over her eyes. "And I hate that it's gonna end...because I...I..."

"It's not fair!" Klein said, tossing the glass of water he'd been holding onto the floor. He'd just swished his fingers around in it until this point. But Klein was so caught up with his outburst that he barely heard the glass splinter and explode into sparkles.

Everyone fell quiet, even Liz. "It's not fair!" He yelled again, tears streaking his face. "I wanted to do more with my life! I didn't want to just be part of an 'unfortunate incident' and die as part of 10,000 other people! I wanted to do something with my life, I wanted to be more than useless, but now I'm gonna end up nothing more than another one of the people who died in the 'SAO Incident', or whatever they call it!" Klein dragged his hand down his face, smearing the tears and wiping his nose in the same motion.

Normally, Liz would have made fun of him for crying, or even gotten straight down and laughed at him for it, but she couldn't bring herself to. Even if she wanted to.

Instead, she started to cry. For herself, for her useless life, to what her mother would say when she found out Liz was dead, to what would happen next, what heaven was like, if she'd even go to heaven.

She couldn't stop herself.

Why?

Why?

Had she done something to deserve dying at this age? Did she deserve the pain of knowing about her own death?

Before long, everyone's face was stained with tears. Silica had been trying to hold it in, but she wasn't strong enough, simple as that, so she bawled loudly, and Asuna buried herself in Kirito's shoulder, and he stroked her back, wiping a few tears of his own, knowing it'd be one of the few times he would ever hold her.

And to him, that thought was unbearable.

Agil was last. He tried not to- He really did. He was the oldest one here, dammit, if he wasn't gonna be strong, how would any of the others not break? But the thought of never seeing Kathy, his wife, ever again, killed him. All this time he'd fought for her. Now what?

He had _vowed_ to stay by her side through _everything_. And he'd left her. All alone. Did she even love him anymore? What if she loved another man now? What if she'd forgotten about him?

Then a thought struck him. What if there'd been another….accident? What if he was hoping and craving for his wife, but his wife was actually…dead?

Agil couldn't bear to think of it.

He buried his face in his hands. He hated the maker of this damn game with a passion.

Go to hell, Akihiko Kayaba.

~The Last Day~

Everyone was finally done crying. But nobody was willing to speak. At least, not until Asuna spoke.

"What are we doing?" She asked, quietly at first. Everyone looked up slightly, surprised at the intrusion to their silent brooding. "Are we so weak that we'll sit around crying about our fates?" Everyone was watching now, as Asuna got up. "He's watching us right now, I bet. He's probably having a laugh out of us, sitting around. He's gonna feed off of our sorrow. He played right into his grubby hands these five years. He's been using us entertainment, dolls, and now he's gonna throw us away. Are we just gonna let him have his way with us, even if the end is coming? We had an agreement! We were gonna fight until the end!" Asuna slammed the table, and a mug of coffee rippled.

Everyone was dead silent.

"No." Kirito said, fists tightening. "I am _so_ done with being played. I'm not going to let him bring my dignity down to that of a dog and then kill me. No way."

"No." Liz chimed in.

"No." Silica said, throwing her tiny fist in the air.

"No!" Klein exclaimed, wiping the remaining tears.

Everyone looked to Agil, who closed his eyes and shook his head grimly. "Never, never again."

Asuna looked up, shadows cast on her usually pretty face, making her look much older. Everyone's eyes were trained on her. She racked her brain for something to say.

"How about," she said, giving a weak smile, "We show him he can't make us down with this news? What if we show him even dying won't kill our spirit?"

Silica cocked her head.

"Oh, I get it," Liz said. "So you're saying to do all the stuff we never got to do to show him we're alive until we're dead?"

"Well...yeah, I guess." Asuna said, liking his Liz put it.

Agil nodded. "My wife's brother got cancer." He said in his baritone voice. "He made a bucket list. He did everything in it, in the end."

Klein hopped up, and it seemed like everyone forgot they were talking about their own deaths. "Yeah, a bucket list! That sounds great!" He said. He rushed around, throwing pencils and paper at everyone. "CHOP CHOP!" He yelled, scribbling a list a mile long on his own page.

~The Last Day~

"So...Kirito, you wanna start?" Agil asked.

Kirito shrugged. "Uh, okay. Um, I wanna get married. To Asuna. As soon as possible."

Klein nodded as if this was a business meeting. "Yes yes," he said. "Weddings, very festive things for last days."

Liz bad gotten some of her fire back, so she replied with the lame comeback of, "You sound like you're planning a murder."

The list that passed examination and was written down by Klein was oddly short, but fulfilling.

Now it was time to start it.

~The Last Day~

First was Kirito and Asuna's wedding.

"Well," Agil calculated. "We have half of today and all of tomorrow left to finish the list. I think we can spend most of today on the wedding."

Liz nodded. "Sounds good, I love weddings!" She exclaimed. But there was something in her eyes that Agil couldn't quite describe.

Klein draped himself over Kirito. "The boys and I need to go do some shopping for this shindig. Why don't you pretty ladies go buy dresses and flowers?"

Asuna almost habitually told him it was better to save money, but then she remembered. Soon she wouldn't need the money.

She gave a slight wave to the boys as Liz shouted back at him, laughing, and they sent down the opposite street, looking for a good outfitters store.

Kirito, Agil, and Klein all walked down the seemingly barren street. Klein almost expected tumbleweed.

"Geeze," he said. "Does nobody else have a bucket list?"

Then he stopped.

In the window of a dinky shop was a white sign- "Take Everything!"

It was obviously recently made. "Found the spot, ya suckers!" Klein yelled and pulled his friend/groom-to-be into the now- closed shop.

Meanwhile, Asuna and Liz were watching as Silica tried to get her reluctant pet, Pina, into a tiny wedding dress. There was nobody at any of the shops, like it was a ghost town. And Liz deemed it out to walk into a random store and grab a dress. "What, they _abandoned_ it, right?" She said, shrugged as to why these people were so stupid.

So there they were, in a tiny shop full of dresses that looked like they were meant for fighting.

As Silica continued to stuff Pino into a dress, Liz huffed. "We can't stand here all day and watch some poor animal get stuffed into ruffles." She said. "Silica, how do you feel about being the flower girl?"

"I would love to!" She exclaimed, hopping up. "My older sister had a boyfriend, and he proposed to her, and I really, really, really wanted to be the flower girl, but then...I played Sword Art Online...and...I…" Silica shrugged and looked away. Despite her young age, Silica was quite the strong girl. And she kept it in, and covered it up with a smile.

Asuna rubbed Silica's shoulder with her trademark kind smile. "You can pick out anything you'd like." She said, like a mother might. And Silica felt at home. She desperately wanted to reach out to Asuna and embrace her like she would to her mother whenever Silica felt down and her mother would rub her shoulder and look in her eyes, just like that, and tell her it'd all be fine.

But Silica knew it wouldn't be fine. She was gonna cry, she knew it. Her eyes were already damp and brimming with tears, and she fought the instinct to blink, knowing the tears would come rushing out like a storm.

Luckily, Liz distracted Asuna with a white fighting dress. When the redhead looked away, Silica wiped her tears and held her breath, willing the tears not to spill. And luckily, they didn't. She managed to stop the feelings this time.

Asuna watched as Liz pranced around with each outfit, every single one looking more like battle-wear than the last one.

Silica finally dropped the thought of the life she'd never have back and joined the other two girls. "I have pretty good sewing skills though…" She said with a shrug, and Liz's jaw dropped.

"Why didn't you tell us before?" She asked, slapping Silica's arm with her other fist planted on her thin waist. Asuna chuckled maturely, like someone twice her age would, and smiled at Silica.

"Then would you do me the honor of making something for me?"

"Gladly!" Silica responded, glad that she could help for once.

~The Last Day~

Asuna, Silica, and Liz showed up under the tree Kirito and Asuna slept under, together, that day. They were later than the boys. Agil and Klein stood on either side of Kirito, and all three of them's mouths dropped when they saw Asuna leading the trio.

She was wearing a dress made out of several capes sewn into ruffles as a skirt. Silica had taken the bodice of a jumpsuit and hacked off the bottom half, attaching it to the skirt instead. The dress was so different, so unexpected, so DIY, that the boys certainly hadn't been expecting it.

In fact, Kirito had been dressed in pieces they'd scavenged from that one shop. He was wearing a white shirt, and his regular jacket rested on his shoulder, just the shoulderpads had been shined and he was standing up straighter. Agil had fashioned a bowtie out of a strip of cloth, and it rested under Kirito's collar crookedly.

Kirito pushed his jaw back into its natural position and adjusted his bowtie, blushing. Klein and Agil were still in their regular clothes.

Klein rubbed the back of his head. "Heh," He said, almost as embarrassed as Kirito when he saw that Liz and Silica had both been dressed in suitable gowns for the occasion as well.

Asuna glomped Kirito with a grin. "You look great!" She squealed, trying her best to ask like a giddy bride. Which she did. But the fact that she'd only get to be married for a day stabbed her right in the heart. She tried to write it off as nothing.

Kirito chuckled, and patted Asuna's back. "You look great too!" He said. "I feel underdressed now."

Asuna giggled. As the two lovebirds talked, Klein looked Silica and Liz up and down. He whistled in appreciation. "Great job, girls!" He said, and he ducked when Liz lashed out at him.

"Pervert." She huffed, her breath blowing her short bangs up a bit.

As Liz continued to torture poor Klein, Silica looked around the little clearing. These people felt like her second family. Before she could turn the thought over in her mind, Agil spoke up.

"Ahem," He coughed into his hand. "Does anyone know how to marry people?"

Everyone fell quiet. "I figure you'd know…" Liz said, looking at Agil with a sheepish face.

Agil sighed. "I know a little bit." He said. "I've been married before, anyways."

"How much is a little?" Liz asked skeptically.

"A line...or two." Agil said, and Asuna laughed.

"It's okay, Agil." She said. "We'd be honored if you'd marry us."

~The Last Day~

So on it went, Silica walking up the imaginary aisle, throwing flower petals everywhere, with Asuna following close behind. Klein handed Asuna off, and Agil said the few lines of the ceremony he knew. Liz waited respectfully at the side, as the Maid of Honor, and Klein on the other, as the Best Man.

But there was something pulling at Liz's heart. And she was almost 100% sure that it was jealousy. She loved Asuna, yes, she was a good friend of hers and all, but it seemed that her love for Kirito went beyond that. She thought she'd gotten over it, but...apparently not. She watched the ceremony, the way Kirito looked at Asuna, eyes filled with adoration.

She wished a boy would looked at her like that.

Liz bit back her feelings, hoping nothing would slip out on accident. Watching the boy she'd loved marry her best friend, Liz make her final decision. She was gonna tell him she'd fallen in love with him. They were gonna die anyway. Why die with secrets?

~The Last Day~

The next morning, Kirito and Asuna walked back to Agil's, blushing and holding hands. Ten guesses about what had happened the night before.

Liz showed up early. It was officially her last day living. She wanted to live it like the way she'd been meant to live- free as a bird. She wouldn't hold back a single comment. She'd spill every secret. Grant every wish of hers. She wanted to die fulfilled.

After everyone else got there, Klein pranced in ten minutes late.

"What were you doing?" Liz asked, throwing her hands up.

"Enjoying sleep. If it's the last time I'll ever sleep, I want to enjoy it, thank you very much!" Klein pouted. Liz had to admit he was cute. Liz stared. _What_ the heck had she just thought? Did she just say that Klein, the idiot, was _cute?_ The death trauma was really starting to affect her, wasn't it. Despite wanting to bash herself, she just looked away, a mad blush spreading over her face. Had she gotten after Kirito after all?

"Anyways," Liz said, trying to ignore Klein's curious stare at her blush. "I think we should get started. You know. Because the game ends at twelve tonight. You know." She stammered. Nobody but Asuna seemed to notice her blush and her speech.

"Yeah." Kirito said, playing with the wedding band on this ring finger. "We should get started."

So they did.

~The Last Day~

The next on the list was Silica's. And it wasn't one everyone agreed readily to at first.

It was dress up.

"I really loved Halloween!" She complained. "And I only got to go twelve times!" She pouted.

"Twelve is a lot!" Klein argued.

"It _is_ her addition to the bucket list." Asuna sighed. "She's gonna do everything else, so the least we can do is respect her wish and fulfill it as well."

Nobody else's reasoning would hold a candle to the mature Asuna's.

"I've always loved cosplay…" Silica said. "There was this show that my mom, used to love. She watched it when I was a kid. Could we cosplay that? Pllleeasseeeeee?" She pleaded.

Nobody could dream of resisting her puppy eyes.

Asuna sighed and leaned her elbows on the table. "I'm all ears."

Each of the warriors had no choice but the follow suit and put on a happy face. But Liz found herself studying Klein's face subconsciously. Did she like him? Did she not? She facepalmed. Why did she even care? She was gonna _die_ tonight, she had worse things to worry about.

She barely even blinked as Silica ran her through the cosplay routine. She didn't even waver as Silica dressed Liz up in her neat DIY clothes. She said her lines, recreating scenes robotically. She didn't even blink, she bet. Because she was so obsessed with watching Klein now.

She wasn't sure if he noticed, but she knew Asuna sure did. Liz began to wonder when she'd let go of her feelings for Kirito. Was that just momentary attraction? Not love at all? Because now, the more she looked at Klein, the more doubt raged in her mind.

He wasn't ruggedly handsome or smart or hardworking or eloquent or extremely talented in any way, like Kirito, but there was something about him that made her rethink her earlier judgement.

Maybe in the carefree way he joked, or the underlying meaning to his words, or maybe because, even if he was a pervert, he never meant anyone any harm, and was playful, fun and loud.

That might be it, Liz realized. But when had she started to feel like this? Or was it just her imagination? Love was confusing, Liz thought with a frown.

"Smile Liz!" Silica yelled, surveying Liz up and down. Lizbeth gave a tired, plastic smile, and Silica accepted it and moved on.

Liz had quite a bit to think about today.

~The Last Day~

After a grueling hour of reluctant cosplay, they came to Agil's item on the bucket list- he wanted to duel.

Liz hated dueling. She never really worked out the fighting rules, so she'd stuck to making swords. Agil said he wanted to test his strength one last time, so she let him. She sat on the sidelines, giving the excuse of not even knowing how to fight right.

Because she honestly didn't. But right now, that wasn't what she was concerned about. As she watched ticking clocks and clashing, glinting swords from the sidelines, she watched Klein like a hawk. Carefully. Studying his every move. One might call her a stalker, but to be honest, she was just trying to figure out what she was feeling.

For a loud mouth girl like her, she never imagined figuring out and picking apart feelings was so hard.

~The Last Day~

They'd had a hearty, satisfying lunch. Asuna had cooked up meal upon meal, trying to satisfy every single craving over her friends on their death day.

Nobody spoke a word about what would happen at the end of the day. They couldn't bear to. They just kept quiet about it, like nothing was gonna happen.

"Klein, Liz," Kirito said with a frown, "You didn't put anything on the bucket list, did you?"

Klein smirked. "I've got something up my sleeve, don't worry." He said.

He dragged the group of friends out of Kirito and Asuna's log cabin and into the sparkling sunlight. It was beginning to fade out- their extended lunch had lasted until 3:30, and the 'sun' on this side of the game was normally quite dull.

"What are you doing?" Liz grumbled as Klein grabbed her along.

"My last wish is spending the afternoon with my friends." He said. Before she could react, he pushed her into clear, sparkling lake near the log cabin.

Liz shot up, gasping and sputtering. "YOU FREAKING BASTARD!" She yelled. She growled and attempted to climb onto the wooden dock, only to slide back in.

Klein seemed to take pity on her. "That was totally worth it!" He laughed, and then he watched Liz try and fail to pull herself out of the lake. He took pity on her. "Hey, I'm so-" He'd been reaching out to pull her out of the water, but instead of taking his hand to help herself, like Klein expected she would, she pulled a classic.

She pulled him into the water with her.

Because of his weight, she sunk back into the water with him. They both came up sputtering, panting, and treading water at massive speeds.

"That was totally unfair!" Klein gasped, laughing while trying to look mad.

Despite herself, Liz began to giggle hysterically. "You earned it!" She laughed. "We're even!" Klein laughed again, and sent a wave of water her way with an evil grin. "Hey!" She screamed, spitting water in Klein's face. "It thought it was a truce!"

"We never said 'truce', you said we were even!" Klein trolled, and Liz's eyes narrowed.

"Oh, you're on."

~The Last Day~

A few minutes later, Kirito, Asuna, Agil, and Silica all arrived to a really, really weird scene taking place in the lake.

"Are they okay?" Kirito asked, eye twitched as she watched them try to drown each other and laugh hysterically and newly created inside jokes while doing so.

"Is Klein _ever_ okay?" Silica sighed, shaking her head, having picked up that line from Liz herself.

Asuna rubbed her chin. "I admit, Klein isn't okay, most of the time, but Liz usually is...and the times she isn't...have they ever gotten along? At all?"

This caused everyone to stop and stare and at sudden realization. "I guess death helps people really come together." Silica sighed, pretending that the word had no meaning.

Agil nodded curtly. "Yeah."

Soon after, dusk was approaching, and Klein and Liz finally got out of the water, shivering. Of course, motherly Asuna had towels on hand, wrapping them around both of them and handing them steaming beverages.

Sipping her dark chocolate, Liz smiled at Klein, suddenly shy. Shy. That word had never applied to Liz, and now it did. She wasn't sure whether she was upset about that or not, but then Klein smile back at her, and she decided it wasn't such a bad thing after all.

~The Last Day~

Kirito honestly tried to eat as much of Asuna's food as possible, but after a while, it stopped fitting in his stomach. He was the type of guy who wanted to fight until the end, but he'd promised Asuna he'd only fight with her, and she had deemed their death inevitable. So they'd married on the eve of the fifth anniversary.

Of course, he wasn't complaining about the wedding part. Needless to say, the wedding night had been quite nice, despite being the second time they'd done it.

Kirito wanted to chuckle at Liz and Klein's sudden relationship though. How adorable it was, so childish. But the fact that they'd just started it and they were gonna die- that really hurt Kirito. How could he let this happen to his friends?

He looked up at the sky. It was night. A swipe with his hand told him that it was exactly 10:37. About an hour and a half until his death. One hour, twenty- three minutes. Eighty three minutes total. 4,980 seconds. Now it was 4,979. Kirito didn't want to count. He wanted to enjoy the last 4,978 seconds of his life as much as possible.

He wanted to hold Asuna close again, tell her he loved her, kiss her head, he wanted to talk to Yui, have her call him Daddy again, wanted to play around with Klein, wanted to tease Liz and talk to mature Agil. But he couldn't. His life was gonna end.

He looked up at the twinkling stars. Those 0's and 1's he used to worship. He turned away in disgust. 0's and 1's.

~The Last Day~

Agil watched everyone with a watchful eye. He was the oldest- he should be giving pep talks and meaningful speeches, not just _looking._ But he couldn't bring himself to do it.

Because he was afraid that if he did, he'd be the one bawling.

Suddenly everyone quieted. They watched the tears roll down Agil's dark skin.

"Agil?" Silica asked in her quiet, pre-pubescent voice.

"I...I...my dreams were stolen, Silica." Agil said. The twenty seven year old couldn't hold it in anymore. "I wanted a job promotion, I wanted to spend years with my wife, and grow old with her, like I swore i would. I wanted children, I wanted a family, and I wanted to _live._ But I never got to. That damn, damn bastard… I don't even want to say his name...he's a thief. He took the dreams I had and crushed them to dust. I'm losing everything, just chose to put on a damn helmet that one day five years ago." He pressed the heels of his hands into his eyes and tried to stop the flow of his tears. "I'm sorry, I'm supposed to be the mature one." He said, shaking his head in shame. "I'm not supposed to be burdening you guys with my pain as well."

Asuna shook her head. "No, Agil, that's good. You should die fulfilled. It's a child's right as much as an adult's to die in peace." She said, her hand reaching for Kirito's subconsciously. "I'll go next, if you don't mind." Agil nodded, face still hidden in his dark, broad hands.

Asuna took a deep breath. "I was raised a rich girl." She began. "I began life with half of it already set up for me. My parents had everything set up and ready to go. I tried Sword Art Online, and I'm not sure why I did. I think I just got tired of pretending to be the prim, proper rich girl I was supposed to be, and I just wanted a chance to be someone else, to be someone bound by nothing but the basic rules of the land. No heritage, no property, no family name to carry on." She swallowed.

Everyone's eyes were trained on her. "I wanted to be someone else, basically. But I walked in, different person and all, and never walked out. I was Asuna again, but this time, abandoned in this world. This cruel, unforgiving world that was worse than the one I wanted to get away from. I couldn't deal." Asuna confessed. Kirito looked her in the eye, and his gray eyes meeting her orange ones urged her to say more. "I played the game only to survive. I was a mean fighting machine." Asuna laughed dryly. "The Second in Command to the Knights of the Blood Cross." She said.

"I skipped all kinds of ranks and made it to the point where the only person I couldn't beat was Heathcliff himself... But even Kirito can't beat him!" She said, attempting to make a joke, but she failed to a point where she began to cry, a smile still playing on her face. "Then I met Kirito. I'd already worked with him once before, in the very first in-game raid, two months after the game started, but now, three years later, I barely remembered him as anything but the 'beater'. Then I say him, working for us but lying under that tree, talking about the weather...I was so mad."

Kirito smiled at the memory. "You ended up sleeping under the tree with me…" He said.

"Yeah. When I woke up, Kirito was sitting on the fence casually, as if it was the most normal thing in the world, protecting me from fake-duelers while I slept." Asuna smiled. "That was the same tree we got married under." As if on cue, her ring reflected in the light of the fire dancing in the middle of the group's circle.

This time, Liz didn't feel jealous at all.

"Meeting Kirito, I learned something." Asuna continued. "You don't need to be in those exact conditions to be living. You can _live_ anywhere, anytime. All you need is the will to do it. He taught that to me, and before I knew it, I fell in love with him. Its cuz he made me a priority, put me first, and to be honest, there's no feeling that rivals being first in someone's heart." Asuna took and deep breath. "I was never a priority to my parents, I don't think. I was honestly afraid of them; I think I hated them. Now I want to go back and talk to them and tell them how I feel. Tell them exactly how I feel and how I want a relationship with them like I do with Kirito." She stopped stiff. "I guess I can't do that now, though, can I?" Everyone was silent. Asuna laughed quietly. "Silica, you want to go next?"

Kirito checked the time. It was 11:34. Time kept ticking closer and closer to their death.

Silica shrugged. "I don't have much to say." She said. "I never really got to live, that's all. I kinda wanted to grow up and start a family and get married and have kids and go to high school dances and the carnival and go to weddings and have a wedding and..." She continued to rattle on, chasing everyone to chuckle slightly. Despite everything, Silica was as naiive and cute as ever.

Finally, Silica finished her list. "So I guess you should talk, Klein." Silica said.

"Nuh uh." Klein said. "You go, Liz." Liz didn't want to, but then again, she wanted Klein to know about everything as soon as possible. But maybe telling everyone before she told him wasn't a good idea.

So Liz nodded. "My life wasn't a that great." She confessed. "We constantly had no money, my mom wasn't in a very good mental state, and all of that." She sighed. This was gonna be in of the hardest parts. "But the game wasn't too bad. For example, I fell in love with Kirito." She said. Kirito's head snapped up so fast she heard the audible 'click' and Asuna looked up, wide-eyed.

Klein looked on too. If Liz had to name the expression, she'd call it 'dismayed'. But then again, that was just her imagination. It didn't mean anything if _she_ thought so though. She was biased. But then again, couldn't she make the judgement? Liz was confused. She had no clarity in her thoughts at all, she was as confused as ever. Why was life so hard? She wouldn't cry, no. But she'd let it all out, regardless of what happened.

"But then, I realized it wasn't love." Liz said, wringing her wrists. No, she told herself. I'm gonna look up. I'm not gonna be a coward any longer. "To be honest, it took me way too long to realize my feelings. Because my feelings weren't for Kirito- that was just momentary attraction. Every time I saw you with Kirito, Asuna, I mistook the jealousy I was feeling for jealousy that Kirito liked you, not me. But that wasn't true. The truth is, that I was jealous because I wanted someone to look at me that way. Not Kirito, just someone special. And I'm not completely sure, but since I realized that, I've been thinking that maybe Klein might be that someone." She said. She watched Klein's reaction through the corner of her eye.

"I think that this has been going on for longer than I thought. I used to think I hated Klein, but now I realize how much he makes my day and how I really don't hate him and how hurt I'll be if he was gone. I'm not sure if it's love, but I won't have a chance to find out, since we're gonna die soon anyway." She spoke the words like a robot. As if they held no meaning. She wanted to cry, but somehow, she couldn't bring herself to.

Liz buried her face in her hands and looked back up, refusing to look at Klein. She so desperately wanted to, but she was wondering if it'd actually be better to die without knowing how Klein felt about her. She'd rather die without knowing than being rejected in her last moments, she decided.

After all, who'd love her? So she decided to say it. "And Klein," She said, raising a hand to stop him from talking. "Don't say anything. We're gonna die, and I'd rather not know. Who'd love me? I'm mean, loud, and annoying. I treat you like trash and now I suddenly tell you I might have feelings for you. I get it, you don't like me, and I actually bet you don't." She sighed.

Kirito checked the time despite his best efforts. It was 11:56. Four minutes. 240 seconds. He took a shivering breath.

239.

238.

237.

"Guys," He said, "I'm sorry to interrupt this, but we've got less that two hundred forty seconds left.

Liz's mouth shut immediately. "No, it's fine. I hogged everyone's time. I'm sorry." She looked down immediately. It was completely against her character- she never looked down, shied away, or accepted a flaw of hers. But nobody had time to contemplate her difference of character, because they were not down to less than 230 seconds.

Asuna opened her mouth, and wiping her tears, she sang softly. "If today was your last day,"

Silica popped up. She knew this song! Her mother used to listen to it! "And tomorrow was too late," She continued.

Klein looked up as well, with Agil as well. This was one of Asuna's favorite songs, because of her love for the meaningful lyrics, and they'd picked up on the lyrics at some point, after her singing it, over and over again.

"Could you say goodbye to yesterday?" Klein joined in.

"Will you live every moment like your last?" Agil added. He'd normally never sing, but he made an exception.

Kirito sighed. It _was_ his last day, what was the point anymore? So he added his own piece on as well. "Leave old pictures in the past,"

"Donate every dime you have." Liz sang, thought she was more talking than singing.

"If today was your last day?" Asuna finished the last line of the verse. She reached for Silica's hand on her left and Kirito's on her right. Silica reached for Klein, Klein for Liz, Liz for Agil, and Agil for Kirito.

Klein tried to talk, but the broken look in Liz's eyes made him shut up. As Kirito took Agil's hand, completing the circle, a tear fell from his eyes.

Only twenty seconds left.

"I love all of you." Silica said.

Eighteen.

"I love you Asuna, and all of you." Kirito added. "I'm sorry you didn't get the life you wanted, Asuna." He said.

Twelve seconds.

"Liz, I," Klein began.

Eleven seconds.

"Shut up, Klein." Liz said, finally breaking into tears. "Just stop!"

Nine seconds.

Klein opened his mouth again, but he didn't say a thing. Instead, he looked away.

Eight seconds.

Agil whispered a short prayer.

Six seconds.

"I lived a happy life. I love you, Kirito." Asuna said.

Three seconds.

"It was worth it, knowing you guys." Liz said finally.

One second.

"Liz I-" Klein started, but it was too late.

There was felt like an earthquake under his feet, and everything around them began to erode into nothingness, leaving voids of empty space at their feet. Green and yellows lines of 0's and 1's swirled around the players like wisps of smoke.

Klein heard a scream, and by the time he looked up, he couldn't see anyone else. He was floating in sparkles, and suddenly, his vision was completely black.

Red text appeared in front of his eyes.

YOU ARE DEAD.

Kirito fell backwards into the darkness, grasping at the notification, trying to make it go away. It was supposed to be part of a game, it was supposed to be simple, he was supposed to regenerate! This wasn't fair!

He wiped away the tears and replaced them with pure anger and injustice that bubbled up from his very being.

"No!" He screamed. "Akihiko Kayaba!" He yelled, screaming the name like a curse word. "Why? What do you get out of this? What if you were gonna die? All you loved ones either missing you or dying with you?!" He screamed into the black void, watching his body disintegrate away slowly. His words echoed back to him. "No!" He screamed. "Ach, you won't- you won't-" He grunted against the system seizing control of his powerless avatar. "NOT YET!" He screamed. "Not yet! I have a score to settle, you bastard!" He yelled. His eyesight flooded with black, and suddenly, even his thoughts left him.

~The Last Day~

Kirito was standing, both swords strapped to his back. It was a cloudy, hazy sight. He looked around. His feet seemed to be standing in midair, much to his surprise. Orange and peach tinted clouds drifted around him everywhere.

He turned, coat flying. Was this heaven?

He caught sight of a man. That man- no. He was standing near Kirito, that man, the one that had been his idol… "Akihiko Kayaba."

The man turned when called his name. "Kirito." He nodded, as if this was a casual meeting.

Kirito's fist tightened, and then he lunged at the older man, grabbing his collar. "How _dare_ you?" He yelled, seething with anger. "How dare you play with our lives and then kill us all?"

"I didn't." He shrugged. "The game did. And you should be thanking the system, by the way."

Kirito clenched his fists and eyes even tighter. "Why would I be thanking that damned thing, Kayaba?" He asked.

"Because my system somehow changed loyalties." He said. "It made you the Game Master."

Kirito's grip loosened.

Akihiko pulled at his coat. "All the remaining players were logged out, Kirito."

"Not...not killed?" Kirito asked, stepping back in surprise.

Akihiko shook his head.

"Wh-why?"

"The human will is infinitely stronger than the system. I guess your will was so extraordinary that you managed to spin the game in your favor like a top." Akihiko said, as if this was a simple theory.

Kirito's face was white. "What about all the players who died in the past five years?"

"They're dead, gone. I can't do anything about them." Akihiko said, doing something with his player menu.

"Why did you this, Kayaba?" Kirito asked, looking away.

"It's been so long." Akihiko sighed, looking at the disintegrating Aincrad. "I've forgotten why."

Kirito looked away. "I see." He said. It was unfair. Oh, so, so unfair.

"You're quite special, Kirito." Akihiko said. "You're a special one."

Kirito didn't even have time to respond. Next thing he knew, he was looking up blearily at a white ceiling.

He pushed himself up on his weak arms. "A-asuna." He croaked blearily. His lover was the only thing on his mind. Using his dormant muscles, he fought to get up. He quaked like an old man. "Asuna….I'm coming."

~The Last Day~

Liz woke up blearily. "Huh?" She mumbled, reaching for her aching head. She felt a warm, buzzing helmet. "What?"

It all came flooding back to her. She wasn't dead! She wasn't dead!

Suddenly, the door slammed open. An automated wheelchair whizzed into the room. "Liz?"

She looked at thin, male figure, slumped, tired, with long red hair. She fingered her own brown hair, which was much longer than before.

"Liz?" He said again.

"Klein…" She breathed, suddenly embarrassed as the wheelchair stopped near the bed.

"Shut up." Klein said, and suddenly, his lips were pressed onto her. Liz forgot how to breathe. She pulled away in surprise.

"Wh-what- Klein, I-"

"Why did you think I wouldn't like you?" Klein said, sounding almost angry.

"I-"

"Just can it, Liz. I don't know if I love you yet, I'm gonna be honest, but I've crushed on you for longer than I can imagine. I know it's not all cute and cheesy like those movies, but I want you to know that I like you too. And that you're a very likable girl. And that I like you a lot." He stammered towards the end of his monologue.

Liz blushed.

Klein rubbed the back of his head. "Talking about movies, I haven't seen one in over five years. Wanna maybe...go out to one after rehab or something?"

Liz stared. Then she laughed. "Of course, you dolt!" She said. Even if Klein wasn't sure, Liz was pretty sure she loved Klein. But she wasn't gonna let the idiot know that just yet.

~The Last Day~

* * *

 **Thanks so much for reading everyone! If there are any mistakes or aanything, please leave a review and I'll fix it later! Phew, 16 hours of work on this! I scrapped the entire thing twice and rewrote the beginning three times. I think it really paid off. What do you think, Ian? What about you, reviewers? Please leave a comment below and fave and follow! Thanks, and please notify me of any story requests!**

 **~Lea**


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